Chapter 66: The Dazzling Jab

Zen summoned the scroll from his storage stone. He unrolled the little cylinder and read the text. The symbols were not in any line, neither vertically nor horizontally. Some symbols were upside down, making him turn the parchment around, which would result in other symbols being upside down. And there were new symbols and words he did not recognise at all. The longer he stared at the atrocious hand writing, the more it seemed the symbols were floating around the page, causing his vision to blur and sharpen and blur again as if it were on some kind of switch that was being toyed with. A headache began building at the sides of his temple as he looked at the parchment before quickly rolling it back up.

“What is this?” he shouted.

“Ook?” Shibi said, looking up from his folded arms.

“Only a genius could solve this stupid thing!” Zen pulled his arm back, about to hull the scroll away but at the last moment, relaxed it. He fell on his bed like a limp noodle, returning the red scroll back into his storage stone “‘I can do it,’” he said in a self-mocking tone. “What was I thinking. I’m definitely going to fail.”

He closed his eyes, imagining his father’s disappointed face, which for the past few years was simply that black, iron, demon faced mask he always wore. He felt himself growing annoyed with the thought of his father. He closed his eyes, smothering his anxiety for not being able to figure out the code and his annoyance with his father with a peaceful and dreamless sleep.

He woke up to the sounds of inks being scribbled on parchment. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he rolled around to see Deng Ai sitting at the only desk in the cold room. Hugging himself to keep warm, Zen tip toed closer to the boy. He peered over his shoulder and stopped himself from gasping when he saw that Deng Ai was working on the scroll.

He seemed to be working on his won red scroll, translating the complex text into simpler one on a separate piece of paper. Zen read some of the clear text, the beginning of the Sparkling Jab. Deng Ai stopped writing, his glasses glinting in the light, he turned around and both he and Zen shouted in surprise.

“Wang Zen?” he said, having calmed down. “Why would you sneak up on me like that?”

“I was not sneaking,” Zen quickly said. “I see your working on the Sparkling Jab there.”

Deng Ai packed up his notes, holding them close to his chest.

“Seems you figured it out. So… what does it say?”

“I can’t tell you that?”

“Why not?” Zen said. “Come on, help you roommate out so I can start training the move.”

“It would not be ethical of me to do that.” Deng Ai said. “This task is not only about mastering the technique. Its also about doing the research needed to decrypt the text. Many martial arts techniques and elemental incantations are hidden using these methods, which is why you should learn to crack them now by learning the most commonly used codes and some ancient dialects.”

“But I’m not smart enough to do that.” Zen said. “Can’t you just give me a clue?”

“A clue? A hint?” Deng Ai seemed to be thinking about it. “Fine. The technique is encrypted using three different encryption methods sequentially.”

“That’s it?” Zen said. “Psht, that’s a useless hint. If I knew it would be that useless, I would’ve told you to save your breath.”

Deng Ai frowned, “Your welcome.”

Zen grumbled. He was doing it again, taking out his frustrations on his roommates. “I mean, thanks Deng Ai!” he shouted after Deng Ai who was already storming off.

Zen practiced in the night. He jabbed in the air, hoping to see what made the Dazzling Jab so ‘dazzling’. So far, he got nothing. He practiced the parts he had read from Deng Ai’s notes, hoping he could figure the rest out on his own but he had found no progress. For the past month, he had done much of the same thing, gaining little progression. The jab itself seemed like it would not be stronger than any normal punch, judging from the first parts of it. His blitz punches technique, which was designed to be more fast than string, probably held more power than the dazzling punch.

He sighed looking at Shibi who had been watching him train with great attention.

“Come Shibi, I’m calling it a night.” He said, allowing the ape to climb onto his shoulder before he began the trek down the mountain to his dorm.

It was quiet, other than the crickets singing to the moonlight and his feet treading on the ground. Zen felt an eerie feeling coming over him. Something was wrong. He kept looking back over his shoulder and all around only to see nothing. Shibi too, stood stiff on his shoulder, almost as if ready to fight or take flight.

Zen shook his head, convinced it was just his imagination. However, he began to jog anyways. The full moon was out, the only light he had to guide him in the mount area of the academy. It was ties like this that he wished he had been assigned a cottage up the mountain like his cousins, then he would not need to trek down it. This part of the mountain was devoid of living areas, with the cottages on the other side where the lower ranked students were not allowed to loiter or even cultivate for too long.

He began to pick up speed and with the beating of his heart, the uneasy feeling began to subside. He stopped suddenly, causing Shibi to cry out in surprise, and jumped back before the ground before him exploded in debris.

Zen lowered his stance and raised his fists, feeling a few Intermediary level cultivators within the fading debris. When the debris cleared he saw that he knew all the cultivators who stood there, for they were the people he had betrayed to Xu Hao. What really took him off guard was the boy standing at their head, looking at him with hate that equalled the others.

“Chu Jiahai?”